(Book 2) Chapter 1 – A New Grandmaster

"Have you uncovered anything of relevance, Kadiz?” Mr Valeri – or as he should now be called: ‘The Grandmaster’, asked.

Kadiz shook his head, not taking his eyes off the man sat in his new chair, at his new desk in his new office in The Arena.

“I am afraid that throughout my investigations, I have been unable to unearth any real incidences where the Contestants have lied to withhold a serious misdeed by Miss Kane. There are always lesser untruths to be expected when dealing with an investigation on this kind of scale, but as I have said, there is nothing major.”

The Grandmaster nodded at Kadiz and lowered his gaze to the stack of parchments on his desk. They were no doubt letters of congratulations or even perhaps requests for preferential treatment from the Councilmembers – but nevertheless he knew that this was something that he needed to deal with now. And perhaps he’d take a different stance to the previous establishment.

“Not that it matters any longer,” Valeri said. “Miss Kane will not be coming back.”

“Do you know where she has gone?” Kadiz asked.

“Last I heard,” Valeri said nonchalantly whilst looking down at the papers on the desk, “she was seen heading towards the North Gate. Presumably she’s planning on making herself scarce and who could really blame her for that?”

“Indeed,” Kadiz said. “Is there anything else you require of me?”

The new Grandmaster looked up at Kadiz and stared at him for a second. It sounded like the man was less than sincere in his tone, but Valeri didn’t really have the time to deal with that right now.

“Of course,” Valeri said. “Go find yourself a room and I’ll call for you if I need anything.”

Kadiz nodded deeply, turned and left the Grandmaster to his paperwork.

Kadiz had never really respected people of power. Mainly because all he’d ever seen of people in those kinds of roles were lies, mistruths and other fanciful ways of obscuring the truth for personal gain. Of course he wasn’t much better himself, but he was never the one giving the orders, so he could at least give himself a little slack.

Mr Valeri looked through the paperwork on his desk and indeed found that it was mainly Councilmembers and the like petitioning for their children to gain a leg up in the Arena. Some were asking for private rooms, some asked for their family names to be announced as a matter of significance when their children took to the sands and some even asked for their children to get preferential equipment to make their lives easier.

And it made the Grandmaster feel sick.

These were people who thought that cheating the system was a good thing. That giving their children better opportunities out there was somehow going to turn them into better fighters. But that wouldn’t do, would it? The City needed protecting more than ever now, and that meant less luxuries to be had, less advantages and less preferential treatment. And that gave Valeri an idea.

An idea that was so brilliant that he was surprised he hadn’t thought of it sooner.

He would make the Arena churn our better Contestants, better fighters and therefore better Hunters, and he would do it much faster than the previous Grandmaster.

Mr Valeri smiled at his own plans, knowing that if he could pull this off – yes it would be risky – but then once he had achieved the impossible, then the people of the City would shout his name from the rooftops. Yes, this was the way to make his legacy remain for centuries, he knew it.

And he smiled.

Mr Valeri then did what he always did when he had a brilliant idea: He slept on it. It was something that his father had always told him: that a good idea is a good idea forever. So if it still sounds like a good idea after a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, then it was a good idea for sure.

And when he awoke, it was still good, and when he ate his breakfast, watching all of the Contestants of the Arena eating their own food, lost in their own little conversations again, his idea still felt right. So he stood up and cleared his throat.

The breakfast hall immediately turned silent, with hundreds of pairs of eyes turning to stare at the new Grandmaster.

“I know that many of you are still hurting from the battle outside of our City walls,” the Grandmaster said in a reassuring tone. “Many of us have lost loved ones, and not least the Arena itself, losing some of our finest Instructors in the process. But this is what Chaos does. It has taken from us all… it has taken my own son…” he added and his words were sincere as they escaped his mouth. “Chaos cannot be allowed to infiltrate our Arena nor our City in any form it may take. We have been struck with the first blow by our enemy and we have seen how relentless they are. We have seen what we are up against and the mammoth task we face. So I ask you all here today, why do we do this?”

He let his gaze hang over the Contestants in the room as they all watched him in silence.

“Why do we do this?” He repeated. “For the people!”

“For the people!” The breakfast hall returned in one singular voice made up of the hundreds of individuals within.

“I want you all to know, each and every one of you that there are going to be some changes made in this place. Changes that are specifically designed to turn you all into an unparalleled fighting force. And the first of these changes is going to take effect this very day.” He paused for a moment to taste the idea one last time before he voiced it. “Arena battles are hereby no longer just a means to showcase the abilities of the Contestants against the creatures of Chaos for the entertainment of the people. Because from today, no battle will occur with less that three monsters at any given time, and you will be grouped up in three parties to face these three beasts. That means nine Contestants can take to the sands together at one time, and between the parties you must fight together to show these creatures who you truly are.”

A low murmuring returned from the Contestants who were not entirely sure what difference this was going to make to their lives.

“This will serve to teach you that in war, it is not only your friends who you stand shoulder to shoulder with, but it is also your kin, whether you like them or not.”

Of course the Grandmaster had seen that this decree was available to him along with a plethora of other parameters he was able to change within the Arena. He hadn’t yet gone through everything, but this one had seemed like a very good way to prepare his soldiers for war.

“I want you all to think long and hard about how you will plan for these fights, but ultimately your groupings will be chosen for you at random, to be revealed when you head out onto the Arena sands.”

A Purple-Ranked Contestant shot his arm into the air at that announcement and the Grandmaster nodded at him.

“How will it only be revealed at the last minute?” He asked. “Surely we can just see who’s scheduled for what fights?”

The Grandmaster smiled. “I am glad you asked. You will be given a ten minute warning by the God of Balance when you are due to fight. This can be given at any time within the daylight hours and if you are unable to make it to the Arena sands in time, then the rest of the Contestants will head out into the fight without you. And before you ask, from now on monster selection is entirely at the discretion of the God of Balance, though they will always be at least three levels above the average of the prescribed Contestants.”

That was another of the handy parameters that Valeri could change, and he smiled inwardly as he planned for the future. A future where he would challenge his Contestants with higher and higher levelled monsters to shape the humans into a solid fighting force.

Titus gave Jordan and Petra a nervous glance each as he listened to the new format that the new Grandmaster had just proposed. It was kind of expected that Mr Valeri would want to make his mark on the place, bit this seemed like a huge leap all at once.

Effectively, the Grandmaster was saying that a lot of choice was about to be removed from the Contestants, a lot of choice, and a lot of preparation time. From what he had just said, the Contestants wouldn’t know when they were fighting, what they were fighting, and who they were fighting alongside, other than their immediate parties.

“Do you think they’ll put us alongside groups around our own levels?” Petra asked, and actually it was also what Titus had been thinking.

“Yeah, they have to, don’t they?” Jordan asked. “Otherwise we could stand there with two level fifty groups and have to fight monsters that could kill us with barely even a thought.”

“Who taught you how averages work?” Petra asked the large Defender, though she did it with a half smile to let him know she didn’t mean any harm by it. Ever since they’d had their run in with the God of Balance – or Julius as they could now refer to him as – Petra and Jordan had been on speaking terms, but their relationship had become somewhat strained. They were still friends clearly, but Petra had blamed Jordan for a lot of what had happened outside of the walls. She also didn’t fully agree with his undying devotion to Julius, and unwillingness to remove his Blue Contestant’s armband.

Titus and Petra had removed their bands, and then they’d replaced them with blue silks that resembled the equipment, but had none of the inherent properties of it. In short, whilst they were without their armbands, they could keep all of the experience that they would gain within the Arena. Jordan on the other hand, would not.

With their fake armbands on though, at least Titus and Petra knew that they wouldn’t raise any questions from the other Contestants, or the Instructors, and by what Julius had said, they simply needed to keep their heads down and wait.

Because something was coming. Something big.

“Do you think Henderson’s going to come back?” Jordan said in a hushed tone just slightly above a whisper.

Titus shook his head. “I think he’s made his choice. And we made ours. I know we aren’t exactly all as pious as one would expect after meeting with an actual God – except maybe you big guy,” he raised an eyebrow at Jordan. “But Henderson’s really gone the other way, and I don’t know if there’s any coming back from that.”

“And what’s up with your Class anyway?” Petra asked. “I mean I know you’re masking it while we’re here and all, but a Paladin? Have you ever heard of that before?”

Jordan shook his head. But relayed a little of the information he’d been given when he’d been awarded his Class.

“It says that I have shown devotion to the God of Balance. That this Class will allow me to protect the Champion of Balance – assuming that’s boy wonder here – with skills and abilities that are not available to others. It’s also given me a ten percent boost to all my stats on top of a leg-up to my Defence. All in all, it’s pretty good if you ask me.”

“What kind of boost?” Petra asked, immediately feeling hard done by.

“Five points,” Jordan said looking very pleased with himself. “So now my Health Pool is at eighty-one. Pretty good, right?”

“Boy the Gods smile down on you,” Petra said.

“Or at least from across the City,” Titus corrected. He still felt uneasy at the fact that the God of Balance had just seemed like some normal citizen, and also at the fact that Hunters weren’t actually a real thing.

“Oh come on,” Jordan said, peering at the Rogue. “It’s not like you didn’t get anything either, is it?”

“Yeah I did, and you know what I did with it? I threw it in the nearest anywhere box and that’s where it’s going to stay until I actually ned it. We were doing fine before we had to beg the God of Balance for help and by all accounts all we’ve ever been told is that we shouldn’t ask for help shouldn’t try to make things easier for ourselves.”

“I don’t think that counts if its from the God himself,” Jordan said.

“Oh yeah?” Petra replied. “So this couldn’t all just be some test to see what we’d do if we were given something to make our lives easier? We’ll I’m not buying it, not yet at least.”

“Then what about me?” Titus said in a small voice. “I didn’t ask for this Class and I didn’t ask for this ability I have to make my spells stronger. You don’t think I should use that?”

“I didn’t mean…” Petra started, but found that she really didn’t have a response for Titus’ question.

“Doesn’t matter,” Titus said with a smile. “But you get what I mean. Besides, we keep saying ‘they’ like it isn’t just Julius doing all of this, choosing our battles for us.”

“You’re probably right,” Petra said. “So that means if we stay really close to you then there’s no way the God of Balance is going to want to let his Champion get into serious trouble. Maybe you’ll get an easy ride?”

“Or maybe he’ll want to make sure his Champion is worth of his title, Jordan said. “Maybe he’ll get the hardest fights of all.”